Mapping the battlefield of Divisoria market

My childhood days were interesting times during the brief Japanese occupation, Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur’s return to restore freedom to the country, and the rebuilding of war-torn Manila.

Right after the last war, many sari-sari stores rose up to make up for the destroyed public market. My mother used to go to Divisoria together with many sari-sari store owners including Mang Kiko sa kanto (our Chinese storekeeper in the neighborhood) to do her marketing. Our simple joys like biscocho (toasted bread), butterball, tira-tira, and our soda drink sarsaparilla (root beer) were all from this Chinese store.

Even during the Japanese time, my papa, a Justice of the Peace from Paombong, would augment his income by stocking up on barter goods from Divisoria. Lolo Bue from our Barrio Bintog, Plaridel would also regularly take his calesa filled with camote and fruits to Divisoria. Since it took several hours, he would fall asleep and wake up to find himself right in the market place – since his old faithful horse knew the way.

As a grown-up college student years later, I would get imported retazos from Ylaya, Sto. Cristo, or Juan Luna Street in Divisoria for my modista (seamstress) to turn into dresses styled after the American fashion designs we chose from a Sears Roebuck catalogue. Customized dressing was the thing to do before clothes were made available “off-the-rack” in department stores. We did not foresee that shopping for all kinds of merchandise would take place in a mall.

Sorting out the battlefield of Divisoria

Despite the rise of the giant malls, Filipinos remain to be zealous hunters for bargains and sales; and Divisoria is one of the best hunting grounds. You can find almost anything in this cramped up market, from household items, toys, to hardware materials – raw or finished. Our school’s purchasing officer goes to Divisoria every two weeks for the wholesale fruits in Sto. Cristo, to stock our four Metro Manila O.B. Montessori school bistros, and to scout for reasonably priced fabrics and giveaways for special school activities like the annual spectacle and Halloween trick or treat.

Shopping in Divisoria today is like entering a war zone. Container vans, jeeps, padyak (pedicabs) and cars are at loggerheads everywhere. With so many vendors spilling on both sides of C.M. Recto, there is barely any space for pedestrians. It is important then to know that Divisoria is a district divided into four quadrants or sections by two main thoroughfares in the shape of a cross: C. M. Recto and Juan Luna.

The major arterial street is C. M. Recto that crosses the district going toward the Manila Harbor. It starts along the University Belt near Malacañang and goes to Quiapo (traversing Quezon Boulevard) and on to the old Tutuban Railway Station that has been converted to the Tutuban Shopping Complex.

Buyers from Cubao, Aurora Boulevard and Sta. Mesa can take a jeep to C.M. Recto. There are passenger jeeps from Pasay, Pedro Gil and Mabini, which enter Juan Luna Street and returns via Soler Street.

Two esteros or tributaries of the Pasig River cross C.M. Recto: the Estero dela Reina, which flows near the Tutuban Shopping Complex toward the Lucky China Town Mall, and Estero de Binondo. The latter comes down Jones Bridge close to the old Binondo Church. The five small bridges over these waterways—C.M. Recto, Sta. Elena, Juan Luna, R. Regente and Binondo—are not noticeable because they are so plain-looking. They could actually be designed to look like charming Spanish bridges.

How to navigate your way through the Divisoria maze

C. M. Recto, going toward the Manila Harbor, is cut across by seven main streets. Along the one-way street of Juan Luna are the wholesale shops dealing in rugs, canvass, linoleum, umbrellas, towels, beddings and fishing items. The Fiesta Shopping Mall is found here too, at the spot where Ylaya Street begins.

Ylaya, the street that starts at the cross-section of Santa Elena and Juan Luna, is where a wide range of plastic and packaging materials can be found amidst stores that sell ready-made dresses and shirts, retazos (remnants sold by the kilo), kimonas, and barong tagalogs. The area between Ylaya and Tabora Streets is a labyrinthine maze of pasillos identified only by letters, with every stall identified by numbers.

The favorite haunt of designers and seamstresses is Tabora, for their needs in needlecraft, sewing accessories, tailoring materials, costumes, gowns, children’s uniforms, fancy batik clothes, upholstery and home interior materials. Tabora is also the street for affordable wedding favors.

At the corner of Tabora and Sta. Elena Streets, is the NDCC Building that houses the Divisoria Bodega Sales, selling all kinds of toys retail and wholesale.

Along C. Planas are the shops selling local and imported fruits like apples, pears, grapes, and lychees. Traffic is usually stopped here due to container vans unloading crates and boxes of fruit jams. Agricultural items such as seeds, fertilizers and insecticides are sold wholesale nearby.

Sto. Cristo is where the Divisoria Bazaar, Liwanag Candle Store, and Gody’s Wax Center are located. The old Divisoria Mall, which replaced the original public market, once stood along this street before gutted by fire in May 2013. A new building is rising in its place. The speculation is that it could be a condo-mall– a residential and commercial building in one. It is bordered by the streets of De Santos, Tabora, Commercio and Sto. Cristo.

The parallel streets of El Cano and Asuncion are where culinary enthusiasts will find fresh ingredients and raw materials for food businesses – anything from fresh to processed, from the mild to the spiciest seasonings, condiments, a variety of noodles, and other street food products. It is around this area that fresh vegetables from Ilocos, Pampanga, and Pangasinan are unloaded and sold for wholesale.

Going toward Malacañang and the U-Belt

For more upscale shopping, though still easy on the pocket, go along C. M. Recto toward Malacañang and the U-Belt.

This stretch of C. M. Recto is bordered on both sides with malls offering all sorts of products and supplies, from ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes, shoes, bags, and fashion accessories to electronics, toys, and food products. There is the Tutuban Shopping Complex of three buildings, where a seasonal midnight market is held along the alley between 1A and 1B, from 9 in the evening to 12 midnight.

Clustered around the narrow streets of Soler, Felipe II, Dela Reina, and Gen. Lachambra are the popular stomping grounds of earnest shoppers, drawing a crowd of more than 45,000 during weekends. There are the two buildings of the 999 Shopping Mall, the buildings (A & B) of the 168 Mall that, 11/88 Mall (formerly Meisic Mall), Cityplace Square, Lucky Chinatown Mall (for original/branded items), and Juan Luna Plaza.

Most shops, stalls and malls are open as early as 8 in the morning and close at 7 in the evening. They do business throughout the week, but not all stores are open on Sundays, especially the smaller ones.

The model markets of the world

Tokyo, London, Paris and New York have long ago relocated their wholesale markets to the outskirts, usually by the fishing ports. Inner city districts and provincial towns of Italy, France, Germany, and Spain have specialty stores for each food item: the pollaio (poultry and game), macelleria (meat butcher shop), latteria (milk, butter, cheese and eggs), fruterria (vegetables and fruits). Of all these stores, it is the fish shop that is completely emptied and washed clean of dirt and smell at the end of the day. Fresh fish and other seafood are neither chilled nor refrigerated since three-fourth of the year the climate is cold.

Market day is once a week in the large cities or small towns of Europe. In Paris, for example, the Wednesday market is under the LRT of La Motte Picquet, while the Saturday market is by Champs des Mars. Fresh mutton, pork, beef, rabbit meat, dressed duck, turkey and chicken from the farms fill up the canvas-roofed stalls, measuring five by three meters, provided by the municipality.

Seasonal vegetables and fruits are sold in another section, while the large variety of cheeses is laid out in another section. The neat covered vans of the sellers are parked right behind their open-air tents. By early afternoon the goods are sold, the few left-overs packed away, and the place is cleaned and emptied by the municipality.

In comparison, our old markets of Divisoria, Baclaran, Balintawak are covered with uncollected old vegetable refuse, mixed with mud, since the whole place is never cleared, washed out and aired.

A hopeful note from the province

Except for the clean and well-organized Cubao Farmers’ Market owned by the Araneta family, our Metro Manila markets are run by the government. Most of them are great hazards to our lives: Pasay, Pasig, Baclaran, Alabang, Malabon, Quiapo, Caloocan, Blumentritt, Paco, Sta. Ana and Nepa Q-Mart. It’s hopeful to know that provincial markets of Angeles (Pampanga), Cebu, Cagayan de Oro are clean and well-organized.

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